Successful people tend to have plans, tasks and habits that they stick to. They have discovered what works best for them and they stick to it. These four apps can help you to be successful too.

Success can be measured in many different ways and you might want to exercise every day, lose some weight, make regular contact with a friend or relative, meditate, study for education, work or for leisure, and so on.

The apps here enable you to define habits you want to acquire. Good habits, like going for a run three times a week. They enable you to set a schedule and set reminders in case you forget.

You can tell them when you have completed a habit, task or goal, and they track your successes. You can view your history, see how many times you have studied, been to the gym, drunk a glass of water or whatever you want.

Tracking your activities in this way inspires you to continue. They gently remind you to do what it needed and they show you how much you have achieved, and it is inspiring and motivates you.

All the apps here are free in the Google Play Store and run on Android phones. Search for the names to find them. Two are completely free and two have optional upgrades to unlock extra features.

Rewire

One of the best features of Rewire is its interface. It is simple and straightforward to use, yet it has all the features you need. The plus button at the bottom is used to add a habit you want to build and in the free version of this app the number is limited to five. Pay a small upgrade fee (UK £4.39) and it becomes unlimited.

A habit has a name, a description, and several reasons. For example, the reasons for exercising regularly might be to get fit and lose weight. A schedule can be created and this can be fixed, such as on set days of the week or a certain number of times a day, or is can be flexible, such as going the the gym three times a week, but when you go is up to you.

Reminders are optional, but if you need your phone to tell when to perform a habit, then an alarm can be set.

The home screen shows a list of habits with the days of the week. You just tap a day to indicate that you have done the habit. Tap it when you get back from the gym for example. This enables you to easily see which habits have and haven’t been done.

Rewire is an excellent tool for motivating you to regularly perform tasks and it has a lovely statistics screen showing progress.

HabitBull

HabitBull provides more guidance and hand holding with the activities you want to build into regular habits. Add a habit for example, and it provides a list of the most popular that you can add with a tap, like fitness, diet and food, study, meditation, and others. Alternatively, you can select and browse categories like arts, money, self improvement, and more.

You are then asked how you would like to track the activity, such as a Yes/No to say whether it has been done, with a number, like the number of miles you ran, and so on. You then enter the habit name and title.

The schedule is then defined and you can choose to do it every day, only on certain days, and how long for - 66 days is suggested. Reminders can be added so that you do not forget to perform the task.

The home screen lists the habits and there can be five in the free app, but up to 100 if you upgrade to the Standard package (UK £3.49).

The home screen lists each habit and underneath are the days of the week. You just tap a day to show you have done it. There is also a motivational image, which is optional if you find it distracting.

There is also a discussion group that enables you to chat with others, sharing your successes or struggles.

HabitBull is another great all for getting you to do what’s necessary every day or every week. It is a great app and is recommended.

Goal Tracker & Habit List

Unlike some other apps, Goal Tracker & Habit List is free and there is no restriction on the number of habits you can track. You can fill it up with things to do and track the lot.

Adding a new habit is straightforward and you are prompted to enter a name and a description, such as Study, Learn a language, eat an apple a day, or whatever.

The activity can be scheduled to occur daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. You can specify which days of the week too. Setting an alarm to remind you when a task is due is optional and instead of the alarm going off at the time, it reminds you before, so you can get ready if necessary, such as get changed to go running.

The home screen shows the list of habits and goals you have defined and the days of the week. You just tap a day under the habit title to indicate that is has been completed.

Goal Tracker does not have the most features, but it is pretty good for a free app and is worth considering.

Loop - Habit Tracker

Loop - Habit Tracker is another completely free app and there are no restrictions or limitations on what you can do. You can add as many goals and habits as you want to track.

Creating a habit is easy and you enter a name and a question. The question could be something like ‘Did you meditate today?’ or ‘Did you go running’. It’s basically the same as the description in the other apps.

You then define the schedule for the task. It can be every day, every week, two or three times a week, or whatever schedule you set. You cannot set particular days, like Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but you could set it to three times a week if you want.

The home screen lists the tasks in a more compact form that other apps and this means you can see more habits and goals at a glance. Having too many things to do each day can be overwhelming though and it can be better to focus on a small number.

Instead of a whole week on display, there are the last few days. You can tap to tick tasks when they have been done. The details screen shows useful statistics, charts and calendar showing how well you are doing.

Loop is another great app for inspiring you and prompting you to get things done. It is simple and effective.

Conclusion

All of these apps are excellent and it is hard to choose between them. Goal Tracker & Habit List is free, but Loop - Habit Tracker is also free and offers better statistical analysis and reports.

Rewire and HabitBull are both excellent and are equally good. You might be swayed by the chat features in HabitBull if you think talking to others will help you with your goals and habits.